Greyson had news for him.
“Once Emma finds this out, you’re not going out. I can guarantee it. You’re on lockdown, too, until we catch this asshole.”
Dimitri wanted to weep and rage.
“Take her home, tell her, and help her,” Greyson stated.
Riley sent him the picture. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I’ll go get Kat and Natasha.”
“I can call them.”
“Don’t,” Greyson stated. “We need him to be caught off guard. If he sees them bailing, he might suspect something.”
He got it.
“What’s the address?” Riley asked.
Greyson told him where the Lamaze center was. “As soon as Natasha sees you, she’ll follow you home. She’s going to blend in, and he probably won’t see her.”
That worked for Riley.
Now it was Dimitri’s turn to disappear.
“Head out. I have your back,” he said.
Dimitri was going to trust his family. He had to. They were all he had. For his sisters, he’d do anything.
“Okay. I’ll take her home.”
That was exactly what Greyson needed to hear.
“Stay under. Emma is on her way here with Chris. We’ll regroup, and I’ll call you to update you.”
He put his hand on Greyson’s shoulder. “I don’t know what I’d do…”
He got it.
“No need, brother. No need.”
Dimitri hugged him.
Greyson was shocked. The man didn’t do sentiment and this was beyond moving. He held him.
“We will be okay,” he whispered.
Dimitri prayed he was right.
“I’ll grab her, and I’ll get her back to that apartment,” Dimitri offered.
“Be safe, and if you need me…”
“I know.”
Dimitri pulled off his suit jacket, and left it there. He wasn’t taking any chances. They found one bug, but that jacket could be compromised further. He didn’t have time to pull it apart to find out.
“Greyson, if anything happens to me…” He stopped at the door, unsure how to ask this. “If I go down, please take care of my sisters.”
“OUR sisters.”
Dimitri stared into his eyes. “Thank you, my friend.”
And with that, Dimitri headed out.
Riley whistled when he was gone. “Vegas is about to go nuclear,” he warned.
Yeah, Croft was well aware.
“We have a mess,” he said to Riley. “You may want to distance yourself from us. If he goes down, we all go down,” he stated.
Riley shook his head. “I’m in, Greyson. I have dead women who shouldn’t be, and a shanked scumbag. I’m not backing down. We’ll get through this. I signed on to fight this kind of bullshit, and I’m not giving up. Not now.”
Croft knew how lucky they’d been getting Riley on their side.
“Get to Kat and Nat,” he said, rolling his neck. The popping of bones showed how tense he was.
“On it. I’ll call you.”
Greyson watched him leave.
In the meantime, he got down to work. He was going to study the enemy.
Like he used to...
When he killed for a living.
Dimitri took Marissa out the back door of the club, through the hotel, and to the owner’s parking lot. He got her into the spare ride he kept there, and they were on their way.
The entire time, she was asking a million questions, and he refused to answer them.
Finally, in the car, he pulled a spare gun from beneath the seat and tucked it into the back of his pants.
Just in case.
It freaked Marissa out.
“What’s going on, Mr. Gideon?”
“I have news. I’ll tell you when I get you home,” he stated, heading out in the sunlight.
“Is it bad?” she asked.
He glanced over and weighed his options. Did he pretend or did he lie?
Then he thought about the mess he was facing. Lies wouldn’t make it better. She deserved the truth.
“Yes, Marissa, it’s bad.”
She stared at him with tears in her eyes.
“It’ll be okay,” he said, reaching over to take her hand. “We have you. I have you. I’ll make sure you’re okay.”
In her heart, she knew what was coming.
Still, she closed her eyes, and prayed.
For her sister.
* * * G r e y s o n C r o f t * * *
Across Vegas
Sitting in the sunlight, he enjoyed the breeze on his face. Honestly, Viktor enjoyed his life. He could come and go as he pleased, he could buy women to use their bodies as he wanted, and he could kill.
That was his favorite part.
As he sat in the empty office across from his intended target, his scope in hand, he began constructing his gun.
It was his favorite.
Why?
It was said his brother used the same, and so did his father when he’d worked for the KGB.
So, he cherished it, the last tie to the man who created him out of love with his mother. He cleaned it meticulously, just like he imagined his father would do with his weapons.
He polished it.
He loved it.
He used it as an extension of himself.
Like this gun, he was a weapon, and he was ready to begin his revenge.
It had been a long time coming, and once he found his target, his voyage to retribution and peace would begin.
He craved that, and Viktor would have it.
Now, it was about waiting to take that perfect shot. Oh, this was going to be the best day in his life. From the moment that he knew his father was murdered by his own son, his brother, he’d begun plotting, training, and implementing his plan.
He was going to make Maximillian pay.
He was going to make him bleed.
He was going to take the killer down with a well-placed shot.
This revenge was going to be served by his hand, for their father. He’d given them life, and he deserved the honor, glory, and revenge.
This was about Cain and Abel, and he was going to smite his brother in the field of battle.
Killer versus killer.
Man versus man.
Blood versus blood.
In the end, he would be the only one standing, and he would prove to the world who had been the best son.
As he got into position, he placed the gun on the stand, and he stared through the scope.
He was going to make it count.
“Well, Brother. It looks like it’s about time. Welcome to Hell. I’ve been expecting you.”
And with that, he got ready to take the shot.
Chapter Seventeen
LVPD
I t was one of those moments that he could have lived without. In fact, he would have given up just about anything to avoid this mess. It was blowing up around him. None of this could be happening. It was impossible.
What the hell was going on?
It all started with one phone call, and it should have been simple enough. Now, Jeffery Raye was on the edge of his seat as his detective in homicide reported in, skipping her boss.
One of their own was dead.
Yeah, he knew, but it wasn’t supposed to go down like this. In fact, it was supposed to be better planed. Clearly, that was not the case.
This was bad.
Very.
Very.
Bad.
And at the center of it?
Unfortunately, it was him and Thomas Christ. Well, when it came down to it, he knew what he had to do.
He was going to have to take one for the team. As in take a life—Thomas Christ’s.
The man had flubbed this, and what was going to happen now was called clean up in aisle Homicide. It looked like more blood was going to be shed.
But how to do it?
This wasn’t easy.
Then it hit him like a divine intervention.
/> He knew how to make it all go down.
On the phone, Commissioner Raye set the scene. Hopefully, he could pull this off.
“I’ll call him to my office, Detective Wayne, and you and your partner can pick him up once I get his gun away from him. If you try something in the squad room, it might be ugly.”
He painted the shoot out that had happened there not that long ago. The whole time, his fingers were crossed. He needed this woman to go for it. If she went at Thomas Christ before he could talk to him, it would be a disaster.
“Good idea, sir.”
He released the breath he was holding.
“We don’t want anyone hurt. He’s clearly crazy if he could kill one of his own detectives. Was there any evidence left there?” he asked, hoping for a miracle.
“The techs found some chewed gum at the door. We’re testing it now. We’ll have it in an hour or so.”
He knew he needed to move fast. Commissioner Raye wasn’t sure what Riley Henderson had overheard or if he was going to be implicated in anything. Yes, they’d planned on taking out the attorney, but they only hoped he didn’t open his mouth.
Or he’d have someone else to take out.
“Give me some time. I’ll get him into my office, get him to hand me his gun, and then I’ll let you take over for questioning. I only hope he’s not dangerous.”
Poppy understood. “I can stand in there with you, sir,” she offered.
HELL NO!
“Oh, Detective, thank you for that. I will use the weapon of diplomacy on him. That’s what I’m really good at.”
She seemed to have bought it.
“Okay, sir.”
After he hung up, Raye pulled his gun from his desk, and slipped it into his holster. He didn’t often carry, but today…he’d make an exception.
It was time to clean up this mess and loose ends.
Once and for all.
* * * G r e y s o n C r o f t * * *
Julie Pierce’s
Apartment
She was dreading this.
The entire time there, the Russian man said nothing to her, and that made her a nervous wreck. He simply held her hand, trying to reassure her.
Yeah, something bad was coming.
She could tell.
As they walked up to her sister’s apartment, Marissa tried to stay calm, but it wasn’t easy. The tension around them was so thick, you could cut it with a knife.
She tried to breathe.
At the door, he took her keys and opened the apartment for her. Again, she wanted to freak out, but she would try and stay calm.
Inside, he sat her down.
“Marissa,” he said, trying not to let any emotion show on his face. He knew what was coming was going to be bad.
“Dimitri, just do it. Don’t make it pretty, or give me hope. If it’s bad, just rip the fucking bandage off and get it over with. I can handle it.”
She was a woman after his own heart. That’s how he’d want it to go down if it were up to him. Pity patting around it wasn’t going to help anyone.
So, he did the deed.
“I’m sorry, but your sister…she’s dead. The Las Vegas police have her body at the morgue. They found her sometime last night.”
She couldn’t breathe.
It was as if all the air in the room had been sucked out in one hell of a vacuum. She was struggling to get that knot from her chest.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
Was she?
Would she ever be again?
Marissa wasn’t sure. She’d expected this, but she’d hoped and prayed it wouldn’t come.
Marissa sat back, and she stared at the ceiling as she tried to compose herself.
Dimitri moved closer, wanting to soothe her. He could only imagine how she was feeling. Losing one of his sisters would have killed him.
“Honey, are you okay? Do you need water?” he asked, hating he’d been that brutal. Maybe he should have sugar coated it after all.
“How do you go on when you know you’ve let someone you loved down? I was supposed to protect her. I was her big sister, and I let her fall. How do I wake up tomorrow, and continue on?” she asked, staring at him with tears in her eyes.
“I don’t know. The weight on the shoulders of the oldest sibling is always heavy.”
He knew.
He spoke from experience.
She had to make sure he was right. Imploringly, she asked him, “Are you one hundred percent sure it’s Julie? Are there pictures?” she asked.
He pulled out his phone and hesitated. Julie was covered in bruises, marks, and the destruction of a vicious killer.
“Are you sure you want to see this? You can’t forget it once you do, and it’s not like it is in movies.”
She nodded. “I have to. Wouldn’t you to say goodbye?” she asked, tears falling down her cheeks.
He handed her the phone.
She gasped when she saw her sister. Her hand went to her mouth and she began shaking.
Dimitri held her as she dropped the phone.
“It’s her,” she finally admitted. “Oh, God! It’s definitely her.”
Dimitri let her mourn.
“What did he do to her?” she asked softly. “It was some pervert, wasn’t it?”
Yeah, she could say that again.
Dimitri didn’t want to give her the details. In that moment, as she was in his arms, he wanted to kiss her pain away, give her peace, and make it better.
He wanted to protect her.
“I don’t think...”
“Please tell me.”
She stared up into his eyes, and she took his face in the palms of her hand so he had to focus on her.
“Just tell me.”
“The killer dumped her. She was sexually assaulted, she was abused, and she was broken.” Did he know this for sure? Well, Riley hadn’t told him, but he knew in his heart what had been done to her. After everything they’d learned the last couple of days, he could guess. Maybe it was best he wasn’t one hundred percent sure.
Then he could protect her.
She began crying.
Dimitri pulled her into his lap and held her. All the while, he didn’t tell her who did this to her sister. Thankfully, she didn’t ask. As long as she kept thinking it was some faceless, nameless pervert, he was safe.
Once she asked…
How was he supposed to tell her that her sister was likely tortured and slaughtered by his blood?
His brother did this to her sister.
He only hoped once the truth came out that she’d forgive him for all of it.
While he was responsible for his sisters, he was also responsible for the man doing this. If he was, indeed, his sibling, Dimitri knew he had to carry that burden too.
He’d left him behind.
Dimitri couldn’t help but wonder if he’d come and taken him, too—might this be different?
It weighed on him.
Then again, that worry could wait. He needed to think about this woman. She needed him. Later, if he got lucky, when she found out, she’d protect him back.
Maybe they could heal each other.
Marissa held onto him, and he kept crooning to her as he tried to soothe the hurt. As he cradled her in his arms, she at least had this.
She had him.
What she needed was more than just his gentle touch. Marissa needed to forget. She needed something to chase away the fear, and he was good at playing protector.
That was what she needed from him.
“Please stay with me,” she whispered. “I can’t be alone. I can’t get through this alone, and I’m by myself now in the world.”
He got it.
In the back of his mind, he was worried about telling her about his connection to this. Still, she was pressed against him, and his hand was stroking her long pale leg.
His body was fighting the urge to come to life, even as she moved in his lap.
This was penance.
Right here, he was in freaking Hell.
As she sobbed and cried, he began saying prayers, novenas, and anything else he could think of to distract himself. He wasn’t a huge believer in religion, but if God could keep his dick in check, just until she was out of his lap, he’d go to church.
Then, she stared at him.
“I’m all alone and afraid.”
He did the stupidest thing ever. “You have me. I’ll take care of you.”
Why he said it, Dimitri wouldn’t know, but the second the words were out of his mouth, he let that wall down.
It crashed.
He let the protective barrier fall, and he gave in to all the things he knew he shouldn’t succumb to in his life.
Only, he was desperate to feel.
He was desperate to be loved and protected in return, and he was willing to risk it.
Maybe, she’d want him, too, and that emptiness would cease for him.
When she pulled away, Marissa was still shaking. The tremor rolled through her and reverberated through him. She didn’t speak, instead she stared into his aqua eyes.
There was pain there and misery just like she was sure he found in hers.
“You have me, Marissa. I’ll be here for you.”
That was kind.
In that moment, she needed that. As she stared into his handsome, Russian face, she needed something else that was there between them.
Marissa wanted to forget, and she was willing to use his body to get past the pain.
Since he was offering…
Her mouth found his, and they fell into the kiss.
There was that battle of tongues as they both came to life. Gone was that mourning, and instead, there was need. They were both so empty.
So broken.
“Dimitri?” she whispered, as she pulled away.
His body tensed. “Yes?”
“I need to feel something other than pain. Make me feel,” she whispered. “Please. I need someone to understand.”
He did understand.
He wanted that one single emotion every day of his miserable life. It sucked not to be able to feel a connection with anyone.
Paid Justice (Croft Family Mob Series Book 3) Page 35
